The Magic of Weiss

Harry Houdini was born in Budapest on March 24, 1874 and his real name was Ehrich Weiss. It became very famous for his work out escapism after being chained in boxes with water, and to unnerve the entire audience for his excellent work.

Houdini was initiated into Freemasonry on St. Cecilia Lodge No. 568 of New York on July 17, 1923, ascended to Fellow Craft on July 31 and was elevated to Master Mason the 21 August. . In 1924 he entered the Consistory. Houdini gave back to the Masonic fraternity of which he was so proud, including giving a benefit performance for the Valley of New York which filled the 4,000 seat Scottish Rite Cathedral and raised thousands of dollars. In October 1926, just weeks prior to his untimely death on that Halloween, he became a Shriner in Mecca Temple. In truth, there were two Houdinis, Harry Houdini, the performer as the world saw him, and Bro. Ehrich (Eric) Weiss, the man and Freemason, a personality obscured from view by the public persona. His success allowed him to be amazingly generous and thoughtful of retired or destitute magicians or their families, often paying their rent or otherwise extending aid. He also gave benefit performances at charity hospitals and orphanages. His generosity, while often kept in the shadows, was legion. Possibly he felt he, too, would someday be in need, possibly he was simply implementing the Masonic tenets of Brotherly Love and Charity, or perhaps it was a bit of both.

In October 1926 while presenting a show for students in Montreal, Canada. Was teaching his number of “super chest” but an amateur boxer climbed to the stage without giving him time to prepare as beating two strong blows and the product of these blows I broke the appendix so he died six days later in a hospital in Detroit on October 31, 1926 with only 52 years.

The Houdini Code

After many years fighting the paranormal, the magician had designed a definite challenge using its own death. He devised a secret code that he shared with his wife, consisting of ten secret words (curiously, extracted from a letter from Conan Doyle). If ever contacted through any medium “from beyond” would use those words, so Bess could be sure that the contact was genuine. However, he warned his wife that if there was any way to communicate from beyond the grave, he definitely would.

Various Spiritualists claimed to have contacted the spirit of Houdini, especially one named Arthur Ford, but his wife never received the secret code. They came to publish stories even falsifying testimony Bess to believe that he had accepted that the code had been revealed, but never did.

After ten years, his wife held a final meeting with no success. Then he blew out a candle that was symbolically kept alive by the photograph of Houdini. “Ten years is long enough to wait for any man” , he said. Since then, the tradition among magicians hold sessions in which you invoke the spirit of Houdini every October 31st.